KNM: Volume 12 Chapter 5

KNM: Volume 12 Chapter 5

This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, and StellarAshes.

Ambush on the Secret Base

Daylight held the pike in his hand, and there were bags on the sides of his body, each filled with heavy weights. The other Knights looked similar to Daylight: various large bags hang on their bodies while brandishing their own weapons. Some were also running in circles around the base, and some had their backs to mountains and sparring with one another.

Though it didn’t look there were many things on Daylight’s body, the Knights around him wouldn’t dare to underestimate him. In the days they’ve spent with him, they had already known Daylight was the one who would lead by example. Though the sacks weren’t huge, the bags were filled with gold, which was much heavier than the iron in others’ sacks.

Though Daylight’s mission was to supervise and guide the Knights, he didn’t forget his own training. When the Knights see him following the other Knights who were running around, some of them also followed. Then he would often spend an hour or two doing basic moves. Had it not been the fact that the Knights has seen Daylight sit still quietly to read, they might have thought of him as a hyperactive person who couldn’t stop moving.

But because of this, everyone admired him greatly. No one would complain about the training regimen he had assigned for them because Daylight would do the same thing a few times over the work he assigned, thus nobody felt like they had the right to complain.

Look! Daylight had just finished circling the base with others, and while everyone was trying to catch their breaths, he was looking around, trying to decide which training he should join… But as he did so, he saw a baby-faced boy with weed-like green hair closing in from afar with a darkened face; hundred meters, fifty meters, ten meters… his speed was so fast that it looked like he was teleporting.

Finally, Kaiser’s face appeared close to Daylight’s eyes. His blue eyes seemed to be spitting out fire. Daylight blinked, and as Kaiser had wished, asked pleadingly, “What happened?”

Kaiser narrows his eyes, and roared deeply, “Liola ran away.”

“Huh? Really?” Daylight was ecstatic; in other words, he had finally woken up?

But then he thought, wait, if Liola had escaped from the Dragon Emperor, this would be something good, so why would Kaiser look so angry? He frowned, then asked perplexedly, “Then why are you mad, Kaiser? Aren’t you happy he ran away?”

“Fine, fine, go ahead and ask.” Daylight took a few steps as a result of the poke, and answered as he smiled bitterly.

“According to our scouts, it has been quite a few days since Liola escaped. Baolilong is also definitely with him. BUT! Did you hear anything about them from Flames?” Kaiser gritted his teeth. He swore to the heavens, the first thing he was going to do when he sees Liola was to tear his face into pieces.

“Well, no.” Daylight shockingly realized Liola had not made any contact with them, then immediately asked worriedly, “Could something have happened to him?”

Hearing Daylight’s question, Kaiser seemed to have deflated. He snapped back, “How would I know? That guy always run into troubles.”

“What if the Dragon Emperor had already recaptured him, what do we do then? What if he turned back into Silver Moon, or what if…” Daylight crossed his arms, and began to pace back and forth.

“What if you keep continuing and I die from being annoyed by you!” Kaiser impatiently grabbed Daylight’s shoulder, so his pacing wouldn’t annoy him even more, “The reason why I’m here is to tell you to contact Flames, so we can find out where that guy actually went.”

“Oh, right, we still have Flames.” Daylight didn’t remember until now; he then hurried to contact Flames.

‘Baolilong’s Highness? It didn’t contact me, master.’

‘Try to find a way to contact Baolilong.’ Daylight immediately replied.

‘Okay.’

After a while, Flames’ message reached Daylight, ‘I can’t, it’s too far. I can’t contact Baolilong’s Highness with my abilities, unless Baolilong’s Highness contacts me first. Its Highness’s abilities are higher than mine, so it should be able to reach me… huh? Wait, it sounds like Its Highness’s voice…’

Daylight burst out in shock, “Baolilong contacted Flames.”

“What? What did it say?” Kaiser asked anxiously.

“Liola asked where we are; he’s in danger, and wanted to ask us for help…” Daylight frowned, delivering Flames’ message.

“That guy!” Kaiser gritted his teeth. He was so angry that he almost had an aneurysm. He tried to suppress his rage, and yelled, “Ask him where he is! I’ll go over there with teleport!”

“They seem to be in a small city to the south.” Daylight frowned.

“A small city to the south?” Kaiser said sarcastically, “That’s one clear answer!”

Daylight shook his head, “I can’t help it, they don’t seem to know where they are.”

Kaiser smacked his head with his palm, and moaned, “Don’t know where they are? Surely something that guy would do.”

“Ask that guy, what kind of issues? Perhaps I could think of something.”

Now it was Kaiser’s turn to pace back and forth. He thought for a while, and he couldn’t think of any other way, so he could only say that.

“Disconnected, their connection had ended.” Daylight’s face suddenly went pale, and he looked at Kaiser with the “what are we going to do now” look.

Kaiser tightened his lips, and he held his fists tight. How did it turn out like this? That guy obviously has insane abilities, so why would he always run into things he wouldn’t resolve with his power?

“Daylight, take a team of Knights with flying mounts, especially mounts with the ability to shrink.” Kaiser couldn’t bother to make any jokes now, and ordered seriously, “I can probably take twenty people, and the mounts… I’ll try my best. After we move to the south, we’ll fan out and search.”

Daylight nodded. Having spent the days with the Knights, he knew of their strengths. After thinking briefly, he had decided the candidates, and he began to yell for people to look for these people.

Kaiser closed his eyes. Though his power had been steadily increasing, but teleporting twenty people and their mounts was still something he could barely handle. Nevertheless, he didn’t want to take any less, because it would mean the progress of their search would be even slower. He understood clearly, someone like Liola would never ask for help if it weren’t an emergency, so his situation must be very dire now, and there was no time to waste. Therefore, Kaiser had to gather every bit of power to take these people to the south.

He sank into his thoughts. He began to search for a place for them to land, but he was unable to expand his perception past the base, as if an invisible wall had been blocking it, and the wall was surrounding the base!

“We’ve been made!” Kaiser yelled loudly.

Everyone looked at Kaiser blankly. Kaiser began to run and yelled at Daylight panickedly, “Prepare for battle! We’ve been made! Daylight, be ready to fight!”

Daylight suddenly stopped. He didn’t doubt a word Kaiser had said. He immediately shouted on the top of his lungs to the Knights everywhere, “All Knights, listen! Go to your station immediately and prepare!”

Kaiser began to use his flying spell, and rushed quickly to the command room. As soon as he arrived, he yelled angrily at the Knight on duty, “We’ve been made! How many people are surrounding us.”

“Huh?” The Knight on duty was clearly surprised. He answered panickedly, “None, there’s not a single person on the monitors.”

Kaiser pushed away the Knight. There was a side of wall in the command room covered by monitors, practically covering every corner around the base…

Kaiser’s eyes glanced over, locking onto a small black dot in the air. He took a few deep breaths, then ordered, “This spot here, zoom in to the max.”

The Knights immediately began controlling the instruments, zooming in as much as they could to the spot Kaiser spoke of. They suddenly realized, the barely noticeable black dot was not a bird, but a person — a man wearing a strange, long, black-and-white robe.

“Mizerui?” Kaiser was shocked. Mizerui would, of course, know about this secret base. After all, he was one of the powers Qiusi had spoken about.

‘Mizerui was captured by the Dragon Emperor. The Dragon Emperor knew clearly of his power, so he should’ve done everything to prevent him from getting away.’

‘And why would Mizerui put the secret base on lockdown, making teleport impossible?’

Kaiser’s face sank more and more as he thought!

‘Is Mizerui… under the Dragon Emperor’s control?’

Kaiser felt his heart sink. However, he had been prepared. He knew there was another powerful Magician in Dragon Emperor’s control in addition to Mizerui. How many Knights could these two Magicians teleport?

“Make an announcement; tell every Magician and Knight to go to their station.”

Kaiser murmured. The Knights around him thought he was making a big deal out of this. It was just one person, and what could this person do an entire base? Couldn’t they just send out a squad of Knights to capture him?

“Make an announcement now! Tell everyone to go to their station. The person outside is one of the top wanted criminals — Mizerui. Do not think for a second it was an accident he became a top wanted criminal.”

The Knights were shocked, and they immediately began the announcement. The base began to be in motion.

“Is the Dragon Emperor planning a final duel here?”

Kaiser frowned. Would this be related to Liola’s escape? And the danger Liola had run into. He found himself locking his eyebrows; he can’t believe both would happen at the same time. Liola was in danger, but now neither he nor Daylight could leave.

‘That guy has quite the rotten luck, but every time he got out of it alive. He’ll be all right this time, too, right?’ Kaiser murmured to himself.

Kaiser looked at Mizerui on the screen. He was too far away for Kaiser to see the expression on his face. Without realizing, he began to remember the time when he first saw Mizerui: on the bus, he was still dreaming of catching this wanted criminal, so he would not have to worry about food or clothes anymore… who knew, his fate would run so close to this wanted criminal with a smile as if everything was a world of games.

“You idiot! If Gle were here, he would scream your head off.”

Kaiser took a deep breath, putting his personal feelings aside, and commanded everything with calm and collectedness. He believed that, the only thing he could do for Mizerui now, was to defend the secret base.

* * *

“Meinan!”

Purity and Flames rushed into the room, with darkened faces. Meinan, on the other hand, pulled his pale face out of the files on his desk, and asked weakly, “What’s up?”

“The secret base is under attack.” Purity said with difficulty.

Meinan paused, then murmured, “They’ve been made? That’s not a big surprise. Mizerui had been captured, and the Dragon Emperor is an expert in hypnosis and control. So, finding out about the secret base was only going to be a matter of time.”

“Meinan, how could you be so calm! Daylight and Kaiser are still in there!” Purity answered angrily.

Meinan smiled lightly, “Purity, don’t be mad, it’s not that I don’t care about them, but since I handed the secret base over to them, I trust they can definitely defend it.”

After hearing that, Purity was a bit calmer, but worry still hung on her face, “B-but what if that Dragon Emperor is up to something devious, and Kaiser and others couldn’t hold it? Meinan, I’m really worried. They’re alone in Aklan Continent and surrounded by enemies. How could I not worry?!”

Meinan was, truthfully, somewhat worried about his companions himself, but he couldn’t express that fear, nor could he possibly leave where he was to help them… He suppressed the feeling of uneasiness in his heart, and said, “Purity, listen to me; we must not leave right now. If the Dragon Emperor makes a move, it would definitely raise suspicions in the Commerce Alliance. When that happens, we have to use that sparkle to ignite the fire. The only true way to help Kaiser is getting the Commerce Alliance to be on our side.”

“Purity knows.” Purity lowered her head sadly, “But, I still want to say… we really, really want to rush over and help them, but we can’t really do that. If I don’t say that, those two might think we’re just leave them to die.”

Meinan couldn’t help but nodded. While trying to withhold his tears, he said, “You’re right, Purity, so cheer them on for both of us. Let them know that, even if we aren’t there, we will still be with them in spirit!”

“Flames, you heard him, quickly and tell them!” Purity immediately said to Flames.

Flames obediently passed the messages along. After a while, Flames spoke out the reply, “Master said, he knows, and he will do everything in his power to protect this secret base, so don’t worry. Also, Kaiser said, you’re too annoying. He’s really busy now, so don’t bother him with such useless message.”

“This guy Kaiser is such an a-hole.” Purity pouted, even though the tears flashing in her eyes clearly indicated her concern for him.

‘Useless message?’ Meinan revealed a comforting smile, ‘I suppose it really was an useless message. Something companions would already know about one another, was it really needed to be said?’

* * *

Though he said he trusted his companions, Meinan’s heart was still filled with worries. In the past two days, he had been asking Flames about the situation at the base every few hours. Luckily, the people at the secret base were indeed worthy people selected by Qiusi. It sounded like they had secured the base, stopping the Dragon Emperor’s people dead outside of the base, and didn’t give them a single bit of advantage.

“Is that so…” Lanski lowered her head again. She seemed to have predicted this. When Liola left, he looked like someone who wanted to escape from everything, so why would he voluntarily contact anyone?

Everyone’s eyes widened. As a Knight who sworn loyalty to the Dragon Empire’s royalty, Lancelot actually used the word “expose”; how could anyone not be surprised?

Then, Lancelot spoke what he knew of the truth, including the Heart of the Dragon Emperor, the fact that the Dragon Emperor was no longer Caffey, and the Heart’s desire to take over the world. During this, everyone had lost count how many times their eyes widened, or the times they had to use their hands to hold their hearts in place.

After Lancelot finished telling them the truths, everyone paused for a long while before they could even start to discuss about the issues at hand.

“Let’s focus on one thing.” The Green Commander shook his head and said, “Regardless of whether the Dragon Emperor today is Caffey or that Heart of the Dragon Emperor. As long as he is wearing that skin, he is the Dragon Emperor, and the entire Dragon Empire belongs to him. Therefore, I just have a simple question, the Dragon Emperor wants to take over the world, is that true?”

Lancelot put his right fist onto his left chest, “I swear on my Knight’s Honor, the Heart of the Dragon Emperor wants nothing other more than taking over the world.”

The Green Commander nodded, “Then at least now we can start to discuss how to stop this. According to what you said, Miluo is also working for the Dragon Emperor, then Aklan Continent is basically in the Dragon Emperor’s hands, and the only thing left is us, the Commerce Alliance…”

“Please do not put it like this. Aklan Republic is not completely gone!” Meinan protested loudly.

The Green Commander paused. Before he had time to ask, Meinan had already began to explain, “We, Aklan Republic, are not as weak as we look. There were two reasons why we had to repeatedly retreat when facing Miluo’s advances. On one hand, my father wanted to preserve our true strength, and on the other hand, he was hoping the pressure of war would result in the Commerce Alliance agreement to the alliance between our two countries. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to hold everything still to your agreement before he was attacked.”

“Preserve your true strength?” The Green Commander stood up, and said with shock, “Do you really still have some power left?”

Meinan said with a deep voice, “Of course, the two companions of mine who are on the wanted list are now maintaining the Aklan secret base.”

“Then that’s great. We could work from both the outside and inside, to force the Dragon Emperor to return Aklan. When Aklan can return to its former glory, and with the power of Commerce Alliance, then the Dragon Emperor will never conquer the world.” The Green Commander obviously thought this could be resolved easily.

“No! That’s not enough.” Lancelot, on the other hand, protested, “We must destroy the Heart of the Dragon Emperor, so he can never harm anyone again. Only by doing so can we actually take revenge for what he had done to Caffey.”

The Green Commander shook his head, “That’s something we cannot intervene. The Heart of the Dragon Emperor is an internal conflict in the Dragon Empire’s Royal Family, and something we should never intervene.”

“How do you plan on facing the Heart? As long as he’s still the Dragon Emperor, he still has the entire Dragon Empire backing him. You couldn’t possibly win a fight against him, and you might find yourselves being called wanted fugitives who committed treason.” Meinan suddenly joined the conversation.

Lancelot and Blood Wolf glanced at one another. Blood Wolf then smirked, “That’s simple. As long as we’re loyal to a Prince or Princess, and support them to usurp the throne, then it wouldn’t be treason.”

“I understand.” Meinan’s eyes flashed, “Then who do you plan on supporting for the throne?”

“Well…” Blood Wolf scratched his face, and noticed Meinan staring at him. He smiled bitterly, “Don’t look at me like that. I know you’re Liola’s good friend, but now that he’s gone without a trace, even if we want to support him, we can’t find him.”

“Liola!” Meinan sighed. If it were possible, he’d really want to see Liola on the throne. Nevertheless, he knew Liola, being the person he was, probably had no interest in being the Dragon Emperor.

“If it isn’t Liola, are you not willing to help, Meinan?” Jasmine opened her mouth for the first time.

“Hmm?” Meinan frowned, “That’s not the case. Even if it’s Liola, I would have to set down some terms before I would help.”

“Then what about others? Would you not even discuss such terms?” Jasmine asked loudly, certainly because she was thinking of her best friend Lanski.

Meinan frowned, and answered directly, “It’s not that we can’t even discuss the terms, but I don’t trust anyone other than Liola. I’m sorry to say it like this, but Prince Mocha, Prince Cappuccino, and I, are practically complete strangers. Even princess Lanski… we’ve only had brief contacts.”

“Brother Mocha is dead…” Lanski said with a lowered voice.

“What?” Everyone paused.

“Liola stabbed him to death!” Lanski stood up, and yelled loudly, “You tell me, would Liola come back? When he left, he acted as if he wanted to run away from this world. Is there even a possibility for him to come back?”

“Yes!”

A small voice could be heard.

Everyone looked around for the source of this voice, and they finally saw a figure next to Purity. It was a young person with red hair and gold eyes. This young person was now staring at everyone, while they didn’t know where this young person had came from.

“You… are Knight Daylight’s Dragon, right?” Lancelot quickly recognized this Dragon. Its master had left quite an impression with him.

“What? This is a Dragon?” The three Commanders were shocked.

“What did you mean by what you said?” Lanski quickly crouched, and grabbed ahold of Flames’ shoulders.

Flames twisted around uneasily, then answered, “Its Highness Baolilong had just asked me about where Kaiser and others were. The Highness and its master seemed to be intent on looking for them. Especially when I told them that Kaiser and others were at war, they seemed to panic, and immediately began to go look for Kaiser.”

“He went to look for Kaiser? Does he finally have the courage now?” Ever since parting with Liola, Lanski’s face showed some happiness for the first time.

Flames tilted its head and said as it thought, “Its Highness Baolilong did mention something about its papa planning on being some sort of King, and it sounded like they were happy, so I guess so.”

“Is that true?” Even Cappuccino began to jump. He asked emotionally, “Did brother really decide to be the Dragon Emperor?”

“Its Highness Baolilong did say as such…” Flames was trying to remember something.

Flames suddenly remembered, and with a clap, it said, “Right, it said its papa wanted to do so because…”

“Because he want the world to be filled with smiles, so he wanted to be the Dragon Emperor.”